During the war, when commercial intercourse with England was completely shut off, and the importation of merchandise from other countries hampered by many dangers, domestic brewing revived in a measure; but the unsettled state of affairs prevented anything like a complete resuscitation of the trade. From all we can learn it appears that the increased activity in this field of labor was confined to an effort to produce the quantities of malt liquors which before the war had been imported from England; but even this object was not, in all probability, fully accomplished, because other more pressing needs confronted the struggling people.
For a short time after the re-establishment of peace, the slight impetus thus given to brewing derived an additional force from a pretty general movement in favor of malt liquors, based alike upon moral considerations and economic requirements. We refer to the movement begun by Dr. Benjamin Rush and carried forward by a strong organization for many years after its inauguration. It was during this period that many small breweries were erected in the towns along the Hudson in the State of New York, and in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, where the movement referred to originated, at once became the greatest brewing city in America, the brew-houses there exceeding in number and the quantity of manufactured beer, those of all the seaports of the United States.
PROGRESS
UNDER
DIFFICULTIES
That the brewing industry progressed considerably in those localities where it was introduced, shortly before and after the Revolution, is evidenced by a number of circumstances. As early as 1807 the production of malt liquors, according to Gallatin’s statement, was nearly equal to the consumption, yet the importation of malt into Pennsylvania had already ceased in 1793; thus showing that the adjuncts of brewing in the large establishments were rapidly being perfected. In Philadelphia, where the agitation in favor of the substitution of fermented liquors for ardent spirits had found most favor, the use of beer had become very general, and soon extended into the larger cities of adjoining states. The state of the brewing industry in 1809-10 appears from the following table, taken from the Digest of Manufactures:
| States and Territories. | Population. | Beer, Ale and Porter in Barrels of 31½ Gallons. |
| Massachusetts | 700,745 | 22,400 |
| New York | 959,049 | 66,896 |
| New Jersey | 245,562 | 2,170 |
| Pennsylvania | 810,091 | 71,273 |
| Delaware | 72,674 | 476 |
| Maryland | 380,546 | 9,330 |
| Virginia | 979,622 | 4,251 |
| Ohio | 230,760 | 1,116 |
| Georgia | 252,433 | 1,878 |
| District of Columbia | 24,023 | 2,900 |
| 4,655,505 | 182,609 |
The per capita production of malt liquors in the States named (the total amount produced being 5,754,737 gallons) amounted to almost one and one-fourth gallons, or, to be precise, to 4.98 quarts. This does not include what in the Digest is styled ancient fermented liquors, made of honey—the old German meth, here called metheglin and mead—of which considerable quantities are said to have been produced and consumed by private families. Surely, this is a gratifying development of a new industry within so brief a period, and under difficulties of which the present followers of the trade can scarcely form an adequate idea. We quote the Digest:
“The difficulty and expense of procuring a supply of strong bottles, and a peculiar taste for lively or foaming beer, which our summers do not favor, have been the principal causes of the inconsiderable progress of the manufacture of malt liquors, compared with distilled spirits. The absence, or the infrequency of malting, as a separate trade, has also operated against brewing in a small way and in families. The great facility of making and preserving distilled spirits has occasioned them exceedingly to interfere with the brewery. The liquor of peaches, hitherto deemed incapable of use without distillation, greatly prevents the use of beer in a very extensive region of our country, where the peach tree grows with the freedom of a weed, and where its fruit is of the best quality. Cider, which is abundantly produced in another very extensive region, rivals fermented malt liquors as a common drink, and as a material for a customary concoction (the cider royal) and for distillation.”
The want of bottles was pointed out during the discussions in the first Congress, as an impediment to brewing; but the brewer of the present day will scarcely appreciate the stress laid upon this want, unless a full account could be given him of the character of the malt liquors brewed in those days. Unfortunately, no such account can be obtained; yet a conclusion may be ventured from the statement that, until a Philadelphia brewer of the name of Robert Hare, invented, in 1809, a peculiarly constructed cask and faucet, no method was known of preserving beer, on tap, in partly filled vessels. What the word preserving means in this connection will appear from the following passage of the Digest:
“The want of a head, or top of foam, is now observable in the tap beers of Europe, and it is presumable that this object of fancy or taste will not, therefore, be in future deemed indispensable in American tap houses and families. We have been used to consider the want of this foam as an evidence of badness.”